Stories with Dice
Stories with Dice is an actual-play podcast where a fellowship of everyday gamers explores fantastical worlds, distant futures, and parallel realities through tabletop role-playing games (TTRPGs) from Free League Publishing, Chaosium, Modiphius Entertainment, and more.
Over the years, we’ve told stories around our virtual table in the worlds of Tales from the Loop, Pendragon, Mutant Year Zero, Star Trek Adventures, The One Ring, The Electric State, Forbidden Lands, Legend of the Five Rings, and Symbaroum. Going forward, we’re focusing on a smaller lineup of games, giving us more opportunities to return to each story sooner. As campaigns reach their natural conclusions, we’ll add new stories from the worlds of Twilight: 2000, Vampire: The Masquerade, The Walking Dead, and more.
We’re not voice actors, professional entertainers, or trained performers—just friends from around the globe sharing virtual dice, stories, and a laugh or two as the game unfolds.
Stories with Dice
Mysteries of the Loop S1 E9: A Tales from the Loop Actual Play Podcast
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In this episode of Mysteries of the Loop, Anthony reveals the sentient robot hidden in his backpack to his father. Susie starts connecting the dots about the strange events unfolding in town. Meanwhile, Sven and Johannes take a risky step by sneaking to Dr. Ulla Jonaker’s residence under the cover of night.
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Hello and welcome to Stories with Dice, an actual play podcast of some of our favorite tabletop role-playing games.
SPEAKER_00Welcome back to Tails from the Loop. I believe this is episode nine. We are gonna jump straight in. If you could give us a thumbs up, like, subscribe, or follow on whatever related social media you're following us on or on YouTube, please do so. So without further ado, I am joined as usual by my wonderful co-host Marco and the amazing players that are playing Tales of Loop with me. And unfortunately, we're missing Pete who's having some technical issues, so we are going to get on without Carl Pete. So I'm gonna ask one of those people that were here last session to uh give us an update. And I'm gonna go with Douglas.
SPEAKER_03Gosh, I was hoping that you wouldn't be. I was like the one week where I'm a bit vague on what actually happened. Okay, right. I think where we we picked up it was at hideout, where or whatnot. Anthony had gone to speak with the policewoman and asked to give her a help, and she was very obliging in helping him and agreed
Welcome to the Podcast
SPEAKER_03to meet us, took all the details and agreed to meet us at the toy shop, I believe it was.
SPEAKER_00I'll close you
Character Updates and Background
SPEAKER_00there for just a second. Yep. One XP that anyone who can tell me the name of the police officer. Her name is Ingmarie.
SPEAKER_04It wasn't XP for what her name actually was, it was uh for best name, right? Oh, okay, right, yeah. No, Douglas Tassol.
unknownCool.
SPEAKER_00Carry on Douglas.
SPEAKER_03Uh yes, so he had done that, Anthony had gone and spoke to him, and then told us that they were house. We weren't particularly impressed of that, but uh then we went well Anthony went to go and see where Susie was, I think. The other of us went to chat to the bullies who get involved with police a lot of the time. Yeah. We had a rather tense thing until we managed to, you know, buddy buddy up to the bullies and found out that she is a bit nice, soft, and a non-traditional police also enjoys going out on her boat on the lake and watching things with binoculars. So we then went to the toy shop to meet with Lana Spencer, and then they went and had a look at the toys in the back that were destroyed a couple of days before when we were at the premiere interviewing or whatever. But they'd all been tidied up and then spoke to the Larsons, and they were didn't say much to us, but we were asking also about the creator of the next, which was Dr. Yonker, I believe, who has not been seen and no one can contact her. So we managed to wrangle an address or a street. But as far as um Johannes has told, everybody has the address, and then the policewoman told us, I'm off to do get some approvals from the boss. Whatever you do, don't get into trouble or do anything. Which then, as soon as he left, we immediately decided to go and get into trouble. I would expect nothing less.
SPEAKER_00Yes, that's cool. Yes. Um so in the meantime, while you were while you were doing all that, uh I appreciate that soul, you were not around. But after you're running with the people in the car, after you got abducted by them. Oh yeah. That's it. They put you back in your bike to go on your way, and you decided to go home and tell your mum exactly what had happened. Tell her everything. You told her everything, and your mum promptly contacted the police and then got you in the car, and then drove to the ferry terminal, and then went across the islands to the Rick's Energy Loop main offices, because that is who the people said they were working for, and you spent the good afternoon, or the good portion of the day and the afternoon, at the Rick's Energy HQ, and you were given the runaround with your mum, and eventually you kind of came home that late afternoon when you got in. There was a note left for you under the door from Marco and the rest of the gang. It turns out that Rick's Energy said to you that they didn't know who these people were, what they were doing, they definitely weren't from them. And that's not scary at all. That's that's not scary in the slightest. So your mum then contacted the police again to let them know what had happened. And Yng Marie came over to speak to you. And that's where that's what's happening with you at the moment. You're waiting for Ing Marie to turn
The Search for the Police Officer
SPEAKER_00up, and she has just left Anthony and the rest of the kids. So Marco, what did the um what did the actual letter say to um I'm trying to remember now?
SPEAKER_02Um it was very nice. I think it said something to the effect of Hi Suzy. I hope you're okay. We're worried you were supposed to meet us and never showed up or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Cool. And so as you're sort of like reading that again, Amy Marie turns up and has a long conversation with your mum, and then you get called into the into the room. Your dad has come home as well, Susie, and they are both sitting you down to make sure you're okay. And they ask you where you were, where did you go, um, and pretty much is trying to find out exactly who took you, description, etc.
SPEAKER_04I susie is definitely incredibly shook up by this, but is probably still sort of maintaining that sort of you know, maintaining strength. Like she's still she's not breaking down at all, but is it's definitely shook up. And the way that that comes across is she is very straight to the point, explains every minute detail of everything that happened, and will just basically reel off everything quite confidently, even though behind the scenes that probably is not the case.
SPEAKER_00Okay, so what will happen then is Ng will say thank you very much and will then wander off. She does say that she just met with Anthony and the rest of the kids at the truck shop.
SPEAKER_04I probably if she if she mentioned those, I'd I'd definitely ask, you know, how are they? Are they in danger? You know? What are you doing with them?
SPEAKER_00They're fine. She's she's just making sure that everything's okay with them. When she gets you alone and she's not talking in front of your parents, she says she's helping them out with the little toy problem, or the little robot problem, she calls it.
SPEAKER_04Sort of sort of uh I don't I don't know actually. She's like still so confused about what's going on, still thinks the little toy problem is is just a little toy problem rather than anything bigger. Yeah. Maybe not so. Maybe she's starting to doubt herself, and that's definitely making her uneasy. It's probably probably I I'm imagining this conversation sort of happening while she's sitting on her bed, and and I think she's becoming a little bit more uncomfortable as the conversation's going on, but not not to the degree of like wanting to stop it, but just uh like starting to really process it. So as as she leaves, she's all like fall back on her bed, sort of looking up at at the ceiling, at the the sort of plastic stars that are stuck to the roof. And she's just playing it through in her head. Just as she's about to leave, she'll say, If you if you bump into them, can you can you can you can you can you get them to come round, say hi? Sure, I could do that. I don't think I'm gonna go anywhere for a bit. She understands. She's just gonna lay back on her bed, sort of kicking her legs up and down, just having a think. Okay.
unknownCool.
SPEAKER_04With uh with the music player on. So she's got the headphones on. She's rallying out. That's a good question. I haven't really thought about it. Maybe, maybe it is favourite song. Okay. The new order, Blue Monday.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Right. So back to the back to the boys. You were all outside the toy shop. Where do you go from there? It's sort of like coming into sort of late afternoon. What do you want to do?
SPEAKER_01Oh no, since I guess go back to the hideout, just chill a bit and regroup and think where we're okay. Is that good for you, Anthony?
SPEAKER_03Yeah. Yeah, that's good for me. Okay. I might do something, so I'll meet them back at the hideout in a wee bit. But here's a question. Do I know any kids who live on that street that I have got the address for? Is that connected and popular?
SPEAKER_00I connected, aren't you? Yeah. How about uh why don't you in fact there is actually a skill in the game for that, and the skill is called contact. Yeah. Um, if you'd like to make a contact roll or find out whether you know the right person in the right place. So I'm rolling five heart and three contact, so that's eight dice. Wow, that's pretty cool. Expect to have no successes. No, two successes. Nice. Absolutely, you do. In fact, you know the neighbor. It's a kid that you've probably sold some trading cards to, and you don't understand why you didn't know it before, but you're like, oh yeah. No, no, I do remember. It's a three-story uh building, which is a bit odd in itself, and it's got a strange sort of like to the top part of the um the building. So you're like, oh yeah, no, actually, it's uh it belongs to Martin. Martin is the kid that that lives there, and you know that he lives opposite, also in next teeth.
SPEAKER_03Okay, so that was Yonker's house, that is. That's Yonker's place, yeah. Okay. Well the Yonker. I suppose I'll go and grill Martin if he's around.
Meeting Martin
SPEAKER_03So you're gonna go there to his place?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, why not? Well, if he's in the garden or something like that. So while the rest make their way to the uh the hideouts, you go next door to Ulla's home. Okay, so as you kind of a uh arrive to the house, you probably didn't take notice of it before. The the house itself has got this very nice sort of like garden in the front and in the back, but it's completely surrounded by like a six and a half foot high hedgerow. You know, you vaguely remember that in in sort of like summer it has lots of nice berries and sort of various other things on it, but during this time of the year it's just sort of green and and it's just a seems to be a great way of cutting off the garden from the rest of the neighbours. And you can see as you go to Martin's house that there's this very traditional red panelled and with white accent house, and you've got the main the main the ground floor, then you've got this weird sort of like bottleneck middle floor, and then a larger floor on top, so it's got this weird sort of look to it. Uh and then there's a bunch of sort of satellites and various other electronic devices on the top. Yeah. So uh you go and speak to Martin, he is he is he is he is home, you kind of go in there, his mum lets you in, and uh yeah, he's hey, how are you? What have you got for me? He says. Do I have anything of interest on myself?
SPEAKER_03Probably not. Probably not, let me think. Yes. Oh no, whatchamacallit. I was just coming over, Martin. I know that you could I've got a good line on those new toys. The friends of the machines. And I was wondering if there'd be interest in that sort of thing. I believe your neighbors, the one next door is the one who like made them or something like that.
SPEAKER_00Oh yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, no, you're right. Yeah, she's crazy.
SPEAKER_03Oh well, she's the uh one with all the hair. I'll take your word for it, I've not seen her. Have you seen her around recently? We were at the big opening the other day and got hold of like some prime stock. But uh, she was might be there to sign it and stuff, but she wasn't there. And they can't be able to find her for the last like few days.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I don't suppose you've um you've got that uh the flag flame. You know, the um the the the Bobo fire truck. Was was that one of the ones we picked up? No.
SPEAKER_03No. I'll be like, I'll have to check. I don't know necessarily if we've got that one. I'll name off the ones that I definitely know we do have. Yeah. And whatnot, which I think was like when the robot had run away, then we still had like the big main deceiver one, which was the mega megaton prime or whatever it was. Correct, yes. So I've got a megaton prime if you're uh if you're interested in that one.
SPEAKER_00Sure. Uh yeah, yeah, yeah. But can I pay next month? Because I need to get my pocket money.
SPEAKER_03I I don't know, it's it's high. Lots of people are interested in this. Have you got something anything of value you want to trade in this, like extra with the money? You know, I'll take I trick lots of other stuff.
SPEAKER_00He he takes you to his room and basically rummages around and shows you a whole clethera of different things that you can probably trade. Yeah. He's got like old comic books and trading cards and cassette. Action comics number one. It's useless, it's old, no one will ever buy it. Um yeah, he says that he doesn't really know she doesn't come out very often, but she is when she has come out, she's quite angry. Okay. She shouts a lot at the um the other neighbours. So not a very nice lady. Apparently not. But but he hasn't he hasn't heard from her. In fact, she's normally out shouting at various people. But he she hasn't been out for he hasn't heard her or anything for a couple of days. Okay. Fair enough.
SPEAKER_03I'll set up some sort of enough sure. I'll look at his stuff and then maybe pick out some a couple of interesting pieces and then with the money, and we'll set up a later date to do the trade. Okay. I don't know. And is there anything of interest like interesting that he owns? I don't know. Just maybe like the role for us to decide interesting.
SPEAKER_00Sure. I mean, there's some probably some stuff you reckon you could probably but have a look at. You can decide a couple of items you think that might be worth something. Stick them on your infantry list. Spen and Anthony are
Back at the Hideout
SPEAKER_00back at the hideout. What are you guys gonna be doing?
SPEAKER_01Smoke some cigarettes just to chill a bit. Nothing more.
SPEAKER_02Are you smoking in the hideout? Is that what you said? Yes. Anthony is going to complain about the smell of the smoke and wave his hand in front of his face and ask him if he has to do that, please go outside. It's disgusting.
SPEAKER_01Dude, this is good for you. It will make you grow up and be stronger. Believe me. No, it actually does the opposite. How do you know?
SPEAKER_02Aren't you a doctor? No, but I'm s I'm probably smarter than you. I don't care. I'm smoking my cigarette. Well, if you're gonna do that, then I'm gonna go outside. So Anthony takes his backpack with his DD books and his notepad of various scribblings, and he sits outside on like the I imagine there's like a fire escape or something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, there's a fire escape. There's also like a ground floor that you can go into since it's undercover and stuff. It's just not, you know, it doesn't have a cob or anything.
SPEAKER_01So yeah, it'll he'll sit out on the fire escape, at least it's got a view. Yeah, and then I would put the volume even higher. The music should be blasting out and bothering Anthony. I'll do it as high as I can without destroying my eardrums.
SPEAKER_00Cool. So it's kind of like that when when when you arrive back, Douglas. Uh yeah, so Janice can see it. Uh Anthony sitting outside, and uh there's horrible there's a lot of music coming from the actual Hey Anthony, what are you doing sitting outside?
SPEAKER_02Sans being a jerk. Why? What's he done there? He's playing that music too loud and he's smoking those awful cancer sticks, and and he's just being a jerk. So I'm not here reading my dungeon master's guide.
SPEAKER_03But well. Good news though. Set up a deal for one of the toys. So got some decent stuff, whatnot, for it. I think I got a good deal. Anyway. You still got that little robot guy?
SPEAKER_02Do we have
The Robot Revelation
SPEAKER_02our little robot too? Oh, you've still got the guy in the you've still got him in the uh in your bag. Oh my goodness. Wait, we never showed the police officer? No. Nope. Oh my god. Anthony is. That guy's been there for days. I take I take it back, Sven. I take it back, Sven. You're you're smarter than Anthony. Even if you have a filthy, filthy smoking habit.
SPEAKER_03Janice will just carry on up and inside because he's not bothered. Sven smokes and plays live music all the time, the entire time he's known him. Which is what he does.
SPEAKER_02As soon as you mention the toy robot in his backpack, he likes smacks his palm on his forehead and he's like, Stupid, stupid, stupid, stupid. Why didn't I show the the inspector? I open up the I open up the backpack and I peek inside. How you doing in there, buddy?
SPEAKER_00And he's like, he puts his hand up, or it puts its hand up to it its sort of little face. And then it sees you and it kind of puts his hands back down. The light. It burns. So long since I've seen it. Is it a Monday or a Sunday? Monday, right? That is a very good question. I think so. And it's like the afternoon? It is. Yes, it is. It is Monday in the afternoon, probably about five in the in the in the late afternoon, early evening. Okay.
SPEAKER_02So Johannes, you have a new do did you already get the toy, or it is there an exchange happening at some point?
SPEAKER_03Yeah, I'll have to get they what at the uh Megaton Prime one, which I think is just over there somewhere. Where do we get that? I'll just start having a look around to be like, oh hey Sven, if you can hear us. Turn it down.
SPEAKER_02What are you playing like ACDC or something?
SPEAKER_03No, bank.
SPEAKER_02Oh, they're on a bones. Rebones, yeah.
SPEAKER_03You've seen the Megaton Prime toy.
SPEAKER_01What? When I'm broke?
SPEAKER_00Wasn't that one, was it? The one that's in the Rugsack is not it's not the Magaton Prime. Uh the Megaton Prime is the one that ran off outside the factory. So where is it, guys? I don't know.
SPEAKER_03Oh, you guys were like, I haven't seen it in a while. Where did it go? See around here somewhere. Do you mean the one that's in my backpack? Oh no, that's a different one. Oh, okay. Well, I I I'll vaguely try and remember to describe it. It was like I think it was probably bluey black and purple, dark purple. I don't remember what's the one. That's the one.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah, that's the one. Yeah, you kind of go, oh, hang on. That's the one that ran off into the fields towards the factory when you basically brought it with you. But I was not there. You were not there, no.
SPEAKER_03So I don't know where it is. Yeah. That's okay. No, no, don't care. I will I will foolishly spend time trying to find this thing that is no longer here. It's not there.
SPEAKER_01Look, Johannes, they all look the same to me. I don't care. That's robots.
SPEAKER_02So while they're doing that, I'm just gonna pack up my stuff, wave at them, and say, I gotta go, guys. I think the fellowship is breaking. I'm gonna go home and eat, and then I just leave. Was that a reference to something? Uh no.
SPEAKER_01It reads so many books. Where's Anders when you need them?
SPEAKER_00Where's Anders? Oh no. No one, no one knows who Anders went to. He left you after the toy shop. You haven't heard from him since. Okay. I think Anthony's gonna head off home. Yes, Anthony's gonna go home. Okay. You go home. Your mum and dad are there. They are fairly subdued and quiet when you arrive home. Your mum asks you if you want anything to eat. Are they both at the kitchen table or like where are they? Yeah, your dad's in the garage and your mum is making dinner.
SPEAKER_02I call him into the kitchen.
SPEAKER_00He comes in.
SPEAKER_02I ask him, Dad, can you sit down for a minute?
SPEAKER_00Yep. Mom, you too. Yep, they sit down. They have that very kind of like, oh no, son of you into drugs, kind of like, look.
SPEAKER_02Right, right, right. I I open up the backpack and I show them the toy slash intelligent robot. And I say, I say, Dad, take a look at this and tell me that it's a normal child's toy. Okay. What does your dad do? Uh he works at the loop. He's a scientist, so I don't but that's about as far as I got in thinking about him. That's fine. And what does your mum do?
SPEAKER_00She is a housewife, classic eighties mom. So he has a look, the little guy kind of gets moving around in your hands. And so they're not really sure to start with. Presuming you're gonna plunk on the kitchen table or something.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. I absolutely just plonk it on the table in front of him.
SPEAKER_00So it's still got like a wire attached to it as a kind of like as a uh as a little leash that you put on it. Oh, I take that off. Yep. And it kind of like stands there, and then your dad says, yes. Kit the the the little robot doesn't really do too much, just kind of like moves a little, but then doesn't really do anything else and is just staring at you all.
SPEAKER_02So dad, study it, look at it, take it apart if you have to, take its legs off, take its arm.
SPEAKER_00When you do that, it kind of puts its hands up and sort of like cowers, and your dad sort of looks over and looks at you, then uh looks back at the thing, goes to kind of grab it, and then it moves back off its own free will. Your dad looks back at you and and says, I'm sorry, son. And he he shakes his head. It's okay, Dad. He he then sort of like starts to prod it and poke it. A bit. And the little robot sort of tries to be defensive as much as it can, but it's you know, can't really do much against your dad. Your dad has a little look at it, messes about with it, doesn't take it apart or anything, just looks at it, and then says, Okay, well, tell me everything then, Anthony. Tell me everything. Well, I told you everything before.
SPEAKER_02You don't remember?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I I know, but but just tell me again. Okay, so I go through the whole the whole the whole story. Is there anything you're going to leave out or you're going to tell him everything? What would I leave out? I mean, you've got like, you know, breaking and entering, we've got various things like that. Um you have to keep that in.
SPEAKER_02I'm assuming that the police told him. Maybe, but they haven't mentioned it. So yeah, I'm not gonna tell them. I'm not gonna tell them that we like broke into the factory or anything like that. No. Yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Absolutely not. So he doesn't react to sort of like the factory in the same way. You obviously say that the robot ran into the factory, but you don't say you went in after it or anything like that. So after you finish the story, your dad's like, okay, well, maybe we should call the police then.
SPEAKER_02Well, I already spoke to the the inspector, and she's she's looking into it.
SPEAKER_00Maybe we should speak to the the owner. We can give them a call in the morning
Tensions at Home
SPEAKER_00during the office hours. The owner the owner of what? Well, the robots. Who who what's the company that makes them? And he says, we'll have to have a look at that and see if we can find them.
SPEAKER_02Well, the the toy shop said that the the people who who invented them disappeared. Oh. But they're being manufactured at the factory, and that's where all the weird stuff is happening. That's where we saw Sven's father with a pipe who tried to attack us. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think maybe you should just stay in for the next few days. No. Um I don't want you getting involved in the other stuff.
SPEAKER_02My friends are in danger. I'm already involved, Dad. You wouldn't listen to me, so you don't get to tell me to back away now.
SPEAKER_00You see your dad's sort of face kind of furrows and sort of starts to get angry again. We're just looking out for your best interest, son. We're just looking out for your best interest.
SPEAKER_02Yeah, now you are. Now that I showed you proof that I wasn't making it up, he starts to look angry again.
SPEAKER_00He says, Look, I'm not arguing with you. This is not something that you can have a decision on. I'm telling you, you need to stay away from this for the moment until I find out what's going on. Just have some food. He says to your mum, I'm just going to be outside. I need to think. And he goes off into the garage, leaving your mom to kind of She looks concerned. She sort of like pats your hand and sort of like ruffles your hair and makes you some food and sort of fossils over you a little bit, but she doesn't really want to have any proper like conversation with you. She just busies herself doing her thing. Do I have Susie's phone number? I don't know. So would you have given Susie's number to Yeah, you know what?
SPEAKER_04I probably probably would have. And probably would have been one of those things when we first met. Because obviously I, you know, want to look after Anthony, so I probably gave him my phone number, calling if you ever need help type thing.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Okay. Okay. So I'll make that phone call while mom is making like mac and cheese or whatever.
unknownYep.
SPEAKER_02Okay. Because I know the mum comes. I know the inspector said that Susie was out with her mom, and I'm just gonna like see if they got home.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, sure. So the phone rings and it doesn't take long, and the and and the phone actually gets picked up off the one ring, and you can hear it's Susie's mum. As soon as you say it's you, she says, Oh sure, I'll I'll I'll pass you over. I then calls you, Susie, to come to the to the to the to the to the phone. I don't hear it. Okay.
SPEAKER_04I've got my headphones on.
SPEAKER_00I'm super super loud. It's been the same it's been Blue Monday on repeat. Okay, so you end up jumping out of your skin when your mum touches your touches your shoulder and she says, I've been calling you, Susie, but it's your friend Anthony on the phone for you. Yeah, thanks. Grab the phone. Don't really recognize my mum.
SPEAKER_05Anthony, are you okay?
SPEAKER_02Yeah, yeah. Are you are you okay?
SPEAKER_05Yeah, yeah, I yeah, I I guess I am. What yeah, yeah, no, I yeah, I am. How's everyone else? Well, have you eaten?
SPEAKER_02When you didn't show up, we we tried to get into the you know f a c T O R Y. Mm-hmm. And, you know, we got attacked. So we had a we had a you're all okay though. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I got a cut on my leg. I'll show it to you later. It's gonna make a cool scar. And you've got that scene. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yep. And and I went to the inspector and she's really nice, and she's gonna look into stuff, but and then I forgot that I had the the robot in my backpack and I never showed it to her. But then I thought I would show it to my dad so that he would at least believe me. And so Anthony. Yeah. I'm sorry I didn't really believe you earlier.
SPEAKER_04That's okay.
SPEAKER_02It's kind of crazy, right? Yeah. It felt a bit too crazy. Um I'm not sure really what I think. It's like it's like one of those Steven Spielberg movies, but creepy, scary. What do you think we should do, Anthony? Well, my dad's thinking about it, and you know, he works at the loop, so he's gonna he's gonna he looked at the robot and and he believes us. So he's gonna he's gonna try to figure things out, and he wants me to lay low, and the inspector said we should lay low and not go back to the you know the place. And I don't know, uh Johannes has a friend who he's gonna get another Optimus Prime from or whatever they're called. And he knows the street that the inventor lives on. So I guess the guys are gonna check that out at some point. But Sven was being a jerk, and so I just I left the hideout and came home. But that's a lot of what what what your parents are going to do, Anthony.
SPEAKER_04What are you going to do? I don't know. I thought I would just go to sleep. I'm really tired. Good. Thank goodness. I I thought you said we were gonna have to go back out to this evening.
SPEAKER_02No, we're gonna do that tomorrow.
SPEAKER_04Maybe we should talk about this in the morning.
SPEAKER_02Yeah. Yeah, yeah, sure, sure. I'll give you a call in the morning and we can maybe we can meet up at the ice cream shop or something. Yeah, or or you know, the hideout? Yeah, yeah, yeah. We could do that. We'll meet there first. How about that?
Planning the Next Move
SPEAKER_02That'd be good. Okay. Have a good night, Susie. Yeah, you too, Anzi. Don't don't forget to read.
SPEAKER_00Oh, I won't. You guys hang up. What is Sven and Johannes gonna do? Are you just gonna hang around for a bit and then go home? What's the plan?
SPEAKER_03Fan, would you be interested in uh possibly going to go and have a look at this person the doctor's house? It's probably a bit risky, but you know, if we get there first, you know, maybe we can find something. You know what?
SPEAKER_01I think I you know, with my dad missing, I guess well missing, you know, he became a cyborg. I guess in the this m probably my best lead to find where he is. Perhaps this woman was taken also, and it's in the same place.
SPEAKER_03Uh maybe if she's she's a scientist, maybe she can undo it if we find out where she is. She she knows all about science stuff probably. Let's do it. What them is it? Probably best to do these things when it gets a bit darker. Yeah, yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_00Let's go. Okay. You guys are gonna wait till a little bit of
Approaching the Doctor's House
SPEAKER_00darkness and then go to uh Ulrianica's house. Yes. Okay, so you make your way to Ulla's place, which is uh the northern part of Stenhambra. Before we leave.
SPEAKER_03Yeah, and leave a note for everyone else saying we're off to do this just in case cider egg happens. Be like, off to Doctor's house, be back soon, gone fishing.
SPEAKER_00Sure. Whatever happened to those two boys, no one ever knew. Okay. Um yeah, so you make your way to uh Olionica's house. Uh it's surrounded by a very sort of like six and a half foot tall, thick hedge. Right. What's the plan? There's a little gate at the front and a driveway. The driveway has got a double gate on that's also six and a half foot tall, made of wood and metal, and it's shut. And there's a little light gate for people to go in and out, which is also shut. If you're standing outside, you cannot see into the garden in any way, shape, or form. You just see above on the three stories. What was the best way to jump inside? I mean you could quite easily get a lift over and climb over the fence, or you could quite easily climb over the gate. You reckon it would probably be hard going going through the the hedge, because it's gonna be sharp and there's loads of like little thorns and stuff in there. So actually going over the the gate or the or the fence is probably easier.
SPEAKER_01I'll tell you what it is, Hannes.
SPEAKER_03I'm gonna I'm gonna jump here on the gate and I can prop you up or you you're but you're bigger than me, so maybe if I you get on my shoulders that you can pull me over up. Because I don't know if I'd be able to pull you over.
SPEAKER_00As you get to the gate, you can see there's a little box on the side with a little sort of button on. It's a little call box to just talk to everyone's inside. Is there any lights on in the house when it looks a bit? There's a light on at the top floor, but the rest of the house looks dark.
SPEAKER_03Okay. I will try the buzzer and see if anything happens inside.
SPEAKER_00You push the buzzer and uh it's probably takes no more than 30 seconds or so. Uh and then there's a woman's voice that comes back saying, sorry, I'm really busy. Hello, doc is this Dr.
SPEAKER_03Yonkers? Yonker? Can you come back later? Sorry, just confirm me. This is Dr. Yonkler? No newspaper deliveries, please. Is this Dr. Smith? I'm on I'm on the toilet. Go away. Do I get a feel that it's just some sort of like automate it it are they are the c are the replies making sex contextually the more we're going on, or is it just random random go-away things? It's it's it's so it seems like random go-away things. Might be this might be an automate message message, then. Hello. Is this Joseph Stalin? Go away.
SPEAKER_00Well, kinda work. No, no, it I can't have any visitors at the moment.
SPEAKER_01So how's your day? I don't want any. Just leave it on the doorstep. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Let's just go away. It sounds like a person, but it's you know, it's if someone's randomly pushing a button, potentially. I mean you've not had the same answer yet, but they're all of the same guy.
SPEAKER_03Let's keep on going until we get a repetition. Yeah, I'm gonna keep on going until I get a repetition just to get them.
SPEAKER_00Thanks for that. If you get multiple replies of a similar nature, then you'll get the repetition is please come back later. I'm really busy, or they're doing something go away, and it's a random something that they're doing. Same inflection and everything. Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_03Oh well. Is it can I look up at the window and see if there's anyone like watched looking at us from the window? Nope, there's no one in the window that that you can see. We might be in the clear sweat. Let's go.
SPEAKER_00I mean, it doesn't take much to kind of get out and over it. It is not difficult.
SPEAKER_01Hmm. I I I I offer my hand for him to come. I scrabble up after him. Perfect. Okay. Okay. So okay. Johannes. I was sneaking to the main door. Okay. I look at this window and see if I see anybody. You stay put, okay? Until I sign you like this, and I make like a weird sign. Okay. I I I give a siloed thumbs up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. You you come up into the garden. You can see a couple of like silos off to the side. And it's really dark in here. There's no light on. Uh there's a little car in the drive. Yeah, that's it. You're gonna particularly try to be sneaky or you're gonna try to Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I'm gonna I'm going, you know, I'm all dressed in black, so you know, I'm trying to be like a ninja with my leather jacket.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Do your best ninja impression. Could you please make uh a move? Uh no, a sneak. Sneak roll. That would be the one that we need for sneaking. So uh yeah, just take your sneak and up. How many successes did you get? Great. Oh, okay, yeah. Um I'm a ninja. Yeah. One you see me and then you don't. It it's almost like you have done this a lot and you probably try to avoid trouble at all costs. Yeah, you sneak your way around. Where are you going? There seems to be a front door, back door.
SPEAKER_01I'm gonna check the front door. I think there is some window there just to if I look eat and see what's inside.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, you look at the window on the ground floor to the left of the there's a little set of stairs that lead up to the the front door. You look in and you can see that there's a kitchen inside. The lights are off.
SPEAKER_01I will go to the back. Okay. And if on the way there is a new window, I will try to very carefully look through.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, you kind of like make your way around. There's like a patio on the back, and there is a back door as well. You can see through the windows, through the patio, and it's sort of there's a couple of like wicker chairs, a nice little table, and there's uh there's an actual back door on the patio into conservatory. And try the main patio door. Yep. Yeah, you go to uh open the patio door and it is open. Okay. Um as you go to open the door, you hear a buzzing noise from behind you, the way you've actually come. You can also hear you know the the unmistakable sound of little robots. Oh no. Uh turn around. What you don't see anything when you turn around, but clearly something is coming from the direction that you've been around the patio, to the north of the building. So something is presumably following you or has not noticed you and has made their way around. Okay, so you sneak inside the patio and try to hide. Yep. Okay. You sneak inside the patio and try to hide, which you do, and you see probably about ten of these little robots. Some of them are flying with their little uh helicopters, and some of them sort of like walking through the grass and stuff, and they're making their way around, and they will head towards the front of the building where you know that that Johannes is waiting. Unless Johannes are used to the outside. I'm exactly where I Smed left me because he was just like, wait here. Brilliant. In fact, you can make an investigate role for you, please.
SPEAKER_03I think we are the wrong people to go on this. Uh, this is gonna be a pure mind roll of four. You can use luck points, right?
SPEAKER_00You can if you've if you've got some luck, you you can you can make an automatic success if you want to. Uh no, I will take that failure. Yeah, okay. Yeah, so you hear too late the sound of little little robots and stuff coming through the grass and just coming around the bend. You're probably on the other side of the car. You can see sort of about ten of these little robots. And as you kind of like are here, you see in the light a couple of the smaller robots appear to have fashioned themselves some little weapons out of little blades, maybe some scalpels, that kind of thing. And uh they are appear to be going around the building. It just happened to be dumb luck that Sven obviously went around at the wrong time, or the right time in this case, and missed it. Yeah, they kind of make their way towards you. Do you want to try and hide or get in the car or anything like that? They quite obviously spotted me.
SPEAKER_03You they haven't seemed to have done anything yet. You know what? I'm just gonna put my hands up and surrender.
Unexpected Encounters
SPEAKER_03I surrender.
SPEAKER_00Take me to Megaton Prime? Okay, you basically stand up and put your hands up. They stop the two little helicopters hover for a second, and the the sort of like eight little robots that are in the grass and stuff run towards you, blades gleaming, as you hear two sounds of little pops coming from the from the helicopters. You think maybe they might have somehow fashioned some sort of gun or something in their um little helicopters, and that is where we will leave it for this session. Thank you very much for another fun-filled episode of Tell us Millie. Yes, we'll find out what happens to queer old Johannes on the next episode.